Two years away, there has been very little construction other than simply clearing of venue areas, Coates said. Water quality is also concern.

Coates called the IOC’s forced embedment of its own experts simply to pull the Games off “unprecedented.” Still, no matter what happens, the Olympics will be there in 2016: “There can be no Plan B, we are going to Rio,” Coates said.

Later, he compared the mess to the 2004 Athens games, calling this one a “worse situation”: “In Athens we were dealing with one government … here there’s three.” Coates acknowledged that Rio has “social issues” that need to be addressed.

“It’s the worst that I’ve experienced, but we just have to make it happen,” Coates concluded. “You can’t walk away from this.”